Archives for November 2, 2017

Thursday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1954. While the best known Guinness ads were undoubtedly the ones created by John Gilroy, Guinness had other creative ads throughout the same period and afterward, too, which are often overlooked. In this ad, a man and his koala bear look suspiciously similar, so I guess it’s along the lines of the idea that people resemble their pets. Or in this case, their drinking buddies. The artist’s initials are “E.H.,” but I don’t know who that might be.

Today is the birthday of Franklin Pierce Lauer (November 2, 1852-March 10, 1926). He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was the son of Frederick Lauer. He followed in his father’s footsteps and also became a brewer. After being sent to learn brewing in Germany, upon his return he became the brewmaster at his family breweries, and began running the breweries after his father retired in 1882.

Here’s a biography of Lauer from “Biographies from Historical and Biographical Annals” by Morton Montgomery, published in 1909:

Franklin Pierce Lauer, brewer at Reading since 1882, was born in Reading Nov. 2, 1852, the day on which Pierce was elected President of the United States. He received his preliminary education in the common schools, which he attended until 1866, when he and his brother were sent to Germany for their advanced education, and they remained three years, spending two years in the institutions at Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart, Germany, and one year at Lausanne, Switzerland. He directed his studies more especially toward the scientific manufacture of beer, porter, and ale for the purpose of qualifying himself to take charge of his father’s breweries upon his return home. While at Lausanne he showed great proficiency in music, and though still a boy the vestry of the French Lutheran Church elected him as the organist, which position he filled in a very satisfactory manner during his sojourn at that place.

Upon returning home his father placed him in charge of the two breweries as brewmaster and he displayed great skill in the production of malt liquors of a superior character. He discharged the duties of this responsible position with increasing success for twelve years, until 1882, when his father retired, and he organized the Lauer Brewing Company, of which he became the manager and principal owner. Since then, covering a period of twenty-six years, he has directed the affairs of the company in a most successful manner, bringing its productions to a high state of perfection and purity (as evidenced by the analysis of the State authorities), and giving them a popularity equal to that of any others in Pennsylvania. Its trade has been developed to extend into all the surrounding counties, and to numerous distant places, the large shipments being made on the railroad in improved refrigerator cars.

Mr. Lauer’s responsibilities at the head of his company have kept him so closely confined that he could not devote any time to political or social affairs. He, however, has been a liberal contributor to various public causes; and he has assisted in organizing several financial institutions at Reading, and participated in their management as a director: the Schuylkill Valley Bank since 1890; the Colonial Trust Company since 1900; and the American Casualty Company, since 1903. His only relaxation for some years has been an annual vacation of several weeks with his family to Pike county, where he enjoys the privileges of membership in the Porter’s Lake Hunting and Fishing Club, which owns several thousand acres of timber land on the top of the Allegheny Mountains, elevated 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. In August, 1891, he made an extended tour of three months through the principal countries of Europe.

In 1874 Mr. Lauer married Amelia Dora Heberle (daughter of William Heberle), by whom he had six children: Florence, who married William Y. Landis, of Reading; Carl Franklin; and four who died in youth. He owns and occupies a costly home on the site of the homestead on South Third street, near Chestnut, where he was born, and where his parents and grandparents had lived since 1826. In politics he is a Democrat; in religion a Lutheran, being a member of St. John’s German Lutheran Church, of which his father was one of the organizers in 1860.

This is the description of the illustration of the Lauer Brewing from the National Archives:

Image of an elevated landscape view of the Lauer Brewing Company brewery in Reading, Pennsylvania; a large industrial complex of factory buildings is pictured including the breweries, smokestacks, ice plant, boiler house, hop storage, office, malt house, band stand, hotel, garden, and several others including a bowling alley in Lauer’s Park; railroad cars labeled “Refrigerator Line. Ale Porter and Lager Beer” a Philadelphia & Reading Railroad passenger train, cable car, and horse-drawn vehicles are visible along the street in the foreground; small inset image at bottom right features an earlier view of the much-smaller brewery captioned “Lauer’s brewery in 1866”; a Greek sphinx is pictured in a circular ivy-bordered frame captioned by the words “Trade mark” at bottom center.

Today is the birthday of Anton Simon (November 2, 1848-March 27, 1927). He was born in Alsace, France, but moved to Vincennes, Indiana when he was fourteen, in 1862. After working in a series of jobs, in 1875, he and a partner, Eugene Hack, bought a small brewery in Vincennes, Indiana from John Ebner, who had established in 1859. They continued to call it the Eagle Brewery, although it was also referred to as the Hack & Simon Eagle Brewery, though in 1918, its official name became the Hack & Simon Brewery, until closed by prohibition. The brewery briefly reopened after prohibition as the Old Vincennes Brewery Inc., but they appear to have never actually brewed any beer, before closing for good in 1934.

Here’s a biography of Simon from History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana, by Goodspeed Brothers, published in 1886:

And this account is from “Vincennes in Picture and Story: History of the Old Town, Appearance of the New,” written by J.P. Hodge, and originally published in 1902. There’s a short biography of Simon in the final paragraphs.

In 1859 the Eagle Brewery was established by John Ebner on Indianapolis Avenue in Vincennes, Indiana. It operated under his management until 1875 when it was sold to Eugene Hack and Anton Simon. They kept the name and added an eagle logo identifying their flagship brand. Hack and Simon successfully operated the brewery for decades. They were producing 18,000 barrels of beer a year and maintained five wagons and twelve head of horses for their local trade. In time they established five refrigerated beer depots in towns in Indiana and Illinois. The brewery was shut down by Indiana prohibitionary laws in 1918 and apparently not reopened in 1934 after Repeal.

Today is the 50th birthday — the Big 5-O — of Tyler Brown, founder of Barley Brown’s Brew in Baker City, Oregon. I first met Tyler somewhere in Portland, some years ago, and his beers are amazing. Most recently, other GABF, I saw him at Belmont Station, and I thought I had a picture of him wearing the Belmont Crown. Alas, I could not find it. Join me in wishing Tyler a very happy birthday.

Tyler at me at GABF this year.

Tyler in the UK doing a collaboration beer with Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton.

Early Years in America: Theodore Hollencamp Sr. was born in November, 1834 in Hanover, Germany. He was the son of Henry H. and Kate (Gerling) Hollencamp.

At the age of 20 he came to America. For thirteen years, he resided in Cincinnati where he learned the brewery business. Eventually, he moved to Xenia where he continued in the brewery business with an uncle.

In 1870, he married Miss Anna Tepe in Cincinnati. She, likewise, was born in Hanover, Germany. It is interesting to note they knew each other while growing up in Hanover, but at that time there was no thought of marriage. They had six children, Anna, Elizabeth (Fr. Charles’s mother), Lena, Katie, Theodore (our “Co-Founder”), and Benjamin.

Brewery Business: The Xenia uncle died in 1871, and Theodore Sr. moved his family to Dayton where he worked in a brewery. In 1885, he and a John Aleschleger established a partnership, which was known as the Dayton Ale Brewery. This partnership was short-lived, and, two years later, Mr. Aleschleger’s position was assumed by a Henry Kramer. Eventually in July, 1885, he bought out this partner and became the sole owner of the brewery. Thus began the Hollencamp Brewing Co.

The plant was located at the corner of Brown and Hickory. Chiefly, ale and porter were produced, and the annual production was about 5,000 barrels, consumed mostly in Dayton.

An early article on Theodore Hollencamp Sr. described the family as “members of Emmanuel Catholic Church and standing well in the esteem of the community”. The article went further in describing Theodore Sr. as “having achieved a creditable success in business, having begun his life in Cincinnati without a dollar, and being now one of the solid capitalists of Dayton. He is broad-minded and open hearted, ever ready to give assistance to the needy and to aid all enterprises for the public good.” He was known as a staunch Democrat, but he never ran for public office.

On June 21, 1901 he passed away at the age of 66. All six of his children were living at the time of his death. Anna Tepe Hollencamp, his wife, lived until January 21, 1907 and was 64 at the time of her death.

His son, Theodore Jr., who we have lovingly called our “Co-Founder” when writing about this reunion, assumed the presidency of The Hollencamp Brewing Co. upon the death of his father in 1901. He was only 19.

Theodore was born to Henry H. and Kate (Gerling) Hollencamp in Hanover, Germany on November 2, 1834 At the age of twenty-four he came to the United States and lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, working at any odd jobs he could find, until he finally found a position in the brewery industry, and set out to learn the trade. After thirteen years he moved to Xenia, Ohio where he worked with his uncle in the brewery business. When his uncle passed away in 1871 Theodore decided to move on to Dayton.

In 1885 Theodore, along with his partner John F. Oehlschlager, established the Dayton Ale Brewery.

Theodore married Anna Tepe on November 22, 1870 in Cincinnati. They had six children. Theodore was a member of the Emanuel Catholic Church of Dayton, as well as a great supporter of the St. Joseph’s Orphanage.

Theodore passed away on June 21, 1902, leaving his wife to carry on the brewery business.

Theodore Hollencamp and John F. Oehlschlager opened the Dayton Ale Brewery in 1885 at 816 South Brown Street, on the location of the old Ohio Brewery. The two-story plant had a 10,000-barrel capacity, which needed a fifteen horsepower engine to supply the enormus amount of power to run the equipment. There was also a separate bottling plant where they bottled their own products of ale and porter. Oehlschlager sold his share to Henry Kramer in 1888, using the profits to open the Gem City Ale House, a beer distributing center for Cincinnati Brewing Company and Xenia and Morrow Ales. Kramer stayed on for seven years before selling his shares of the business to his partner, Theodore Hollencamp. Kramer used the money to begin his own street sprinkling business. Theodore ran the business on his own until his death in 1902. His wife, Anna, took over that same year, changing the name of the company to Hollencamp Ale Brewing Company. The output of the plant was exclusively ale and porter, with the brewery producing about 5,000 barrels year.

From 1907 until prohibition the brewery was run by Theodore Hollencamp, Jr. The brewery stayed in business during prohibition by making soft drinks, cereal beverages (near beer) and ice.